Babies learn to talk by reading lips

Think your baby is listening to you in order to learn how to talk? It's more like lip reading, scientists say. There's a fascinating study out that you can read about here that says quality face-time with your baby is more important than you might think for speech development.

Scientists discovered that starting around age 6 months, babies begin shifting from the intent eye gaze of early infancy to studying mouths when people talk to them.

"The baby in order to imitate you has to figure out how to shape their lips to make that particular sound they're hearing," said developmental psychologist David Lewkowicz of Florida Atlantic University, who led the study of nearly 180 babies published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

AP PHOTO: Researchers at Florida Atlantic University studied nearly 180 babies to figure out how they learn to speak their first words.

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